Product Description
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James Arness, Amanda Blake, Burt Reynolds, Milburn Stone, Dennis
Weaver. Head on back to Dodge City with this special 50th
anniversary collection featuring some of everyone's most favorite
episodes from the longest-running show in the history of
prime-time television. 29 episodes on 6 DVDs.
1955-75/b&w-color/20 hrs., 18 min/NR/fullscreen.
.com
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smoke: 50th Anniversary Edition Volume 1 is a winning
collection of episodes from the long-running CBS Western's first
nine seasons, with an accent on special guest stars who had yet
to find fame. A few key storylines are in the mix, too, including
smoke's first episode, dated September 10, 1955 and introduced
by John Wayne, who more or less suggests that the series' beefy
star, James Arness, is cut from the same heroic cloth as the Duke
himself. No matter who drops in for a guest spot, however, or
whether smoke was a half-hour or hour-long program (the show
doubled its running time by season 8), the running storyline and
core characters are as constant as the prairie stars.
Arness plays plain-speaking U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon, who keeps
the peace over a wide territory from his perch in Dodge City,
Kansas, a rough-and-tumble town where prospectors, farmers,
bounty hunters, outlaws, and the occasional lunatic pass through.
Dennis Weaver lends support as Dillon's deputy, Chester, a
courageous clown; Amanda Blake is saloon keeper Kitty; and
Milburn Stone plays irascible Doc, apparently Dodge City's only
physician. Volume 1 highlights feature a couple of episodes with
Charles Bronson, including "The Killer," in which the future
Death Wish star portrays a psychopath preying on the weak. Mogul
Aaron Spelling, at one time a character actor, appears as a
spacey wanderer who nearly gets lynched in "The Guitar." Cloris
Leachman is very good as a woman with a diabolical edge in "Legal
Revenge," Angie Dickinson is memorable as an Arapaho Indian whose
marriage to a white settler incites racial anger, and Jack Lord
portrays a pair of brothers who threaten Doc's life. Burt
Reynolds, who joined the cast of smoke as the half-white,
half-Comanche character Quint, is introduced in the very
effective drama "Quint Asper Comes Home," while Ken Curtis, whose
goofy Festus effectively replaced the departing Chester in season
9, enters the series in "Prairie Wolfer."
Volume 2 picks up exactly where Volume 1 ends, with the
long-running series entering its 10th year, each episode an hour
long and Ken Curtis now a permanent member of the cast as the
buffoonish Festus. A couple of other actors will come and go as
cast regulars, but the core group remains: James Arness as U.S.
Marshal Matt Dillon, Amanda Blake as saloon keeper Kitty, and
Milburn Stone as Doc. This collection of programs cherry-picks
its way through season 19, emphasizing guest stars of note
including Leonard Nimoy, excellent as a wry Indian and skinner in
"Treasure of John Walking Fox," and William Shatner as a wily
outlaw posing as a deputy sheriff in "Quaker Girl." (Arness, who
provides a brief, vocal introduction to each episode, notes that
Shatner was already starring on Star Trek by the time "Quaker
Girl" was broadcast in 1966.)
Bette Davis, Bruce Dern, and Tom Skerritt all appear in "The
Jailer" (the first color episode in this collection), in which
the legendary Davis plays a vengeful widow who kips Kitty in
order to lure Matt to his own execution. Ed Asner provides
optional commentary for "Hung High," in which he stars, while a
young Dennis Hopper turns up as a villain out to kill a bounty
hunter (a charismatic John D. Barrymore, her of Drew). Carroll
O'Connor is very effective in "The Wrong Man," Jon Voight (in the
same year as Midnight Cowboy) makes a splash as a convicted
murderer who saves Kitty's life in "The Prisoner," and Kurt
Russell is solid and sympathetic as a young man determined to
avenge the death of his her in "Trail of Bloodshed." Special
features include a couple of gag/blooper reels, a 1968 Emmy Award
presentation to Milburn Stone, and a pair of old television
interviews with Amanda Blake. --Tom Keogh